One of my FAVORITE pans to use is my bundt cake pan. It’s super easy to use and the bundt cake looks great on my cake stand on my table. With summer finally feeling like it’s on it’s way, this key lime bundt cake recipe is something that you will want to take to every summer BBQ! I don’t know about you, but I am all about anything and everything key lime!

Recipe Notes

*Sub gluten free flour to make this gluten free!

Doesn’t it look delicious?!? People will love you even more when you bring this to your next summer BBQ! You’ll be the hit of the party! Everyone will be asking for your recipe! If you want to go with a lemon lime theme, you must make these delicious lemon bar recipe. It’s most definitely not your traditional lemon bar, but like the key lime bundt cake, it will also be the hit of the party!

Are you a bourbon lover? My husband isn’t much of a drinker, but he does love his bourbon and unsweetened ice tea. What happens when you combine his two favorite drinks? You get a delicious Back Porch Bourbon Tea that is perfect for those summer BBQ’s! Your summer guests will love this twist on a summer staple!

Instructions

Directions for Fruit Infused Tea

Directions for the Drink

Using a shaker, mix the 5 oz of fruit infused tea, bourbon, and blood orange liqueur.

Pour over ice, add a mint sprig and fruit slices.

Recipe Notes

Enjoy this refreshing beverage with or without the alcohol. It's your choice!

This Bourbon Tea recipe sounds delicious, doesn’t it?!? I can already see me making it this summer for all the different get togethers we have planned!

Is Bourbon Tea Low Carb?

Following the Keto diet or a low carb diet and want to know if this Back Porch Bourbon Tea is low carb? Guess what…I calculated it using my favorite app, Carb Counter. Here is an image of the calories and carb count:

I don’t typically like to drink my carbs, as you can see, this bourbon tea is low carb enough that I would make wise food choices and enjoy a drink or two. For your Keto followers, this Carb Counter app gave this recipe a Keto Grade A.

Summer is on it’s way (I hope). There is nothing better than a grilled burger on a warm summer day! If you are looking for a delicious dessert recipe to make, you MUST try these Key Lime Bars or these amazing Pina Colada Whoopie Pies!

A little over four weeks ago, I had my second knee surgery. If you recall, back in October, I had the first part of the knee surgery for my right knee. While I’ve already been through this once (and not that long ago), this second surgery recovery has not been easy. With that said, planning is key. Some things that helped me the first time around, did not help at all this time, but don’t worry! I have found new knee surgery tips and I am sharing them all with you. Hopefully they help someone else going through knee surgery!

*This post may contain affiliate links*

Why Knee Surgery?

For years (like 15+ years), I have dealt with knee pain in every aspect of my life. 12 years ago, I dislocated my knee for the first time and over the course of the next 12 years, I put up with my knee slipping slightly out again and again. In July of 2018, my knee dislocated again. This prompted me to see the surgeon again. We had tried every option available to me, other than surgery, but it was finally time to bite the bullet and have knee surgery. My kids were older and much more self sufficient and my husband was in a place in his career that he was able to work his schedule so he could work from home and help with my recovery.

What was the Surgical Plan?

My surgeon asked me what mattered more to me…fixing the instability, alleviating the pain or both. Obviously my answer was both. There was no way I could choose between the two. Both bothered me equally on a daily basis. In answering with both, my surgical plan went from one surgery to two. The first surgery was this past October. The surgeon went in, cleaned up the underside of my kneecap and took a biopsy of my cartilage. That biopsy was sent to a lab on the East Coast where they grew more of my own cartilage. The second surgery that I had four weeks ago, the surgeon cut away the damaged cartilage, implanted the new cartilage (called the MACI procedure) and then used a donor tendon to replace a damaged tendon to help stabilize my knee (called MPFL Reconstruction).

Most Important Knee Surgery Tips

First and foremost, TAKE YOUR PAIN PILLS. Set alarms on your phone to remind you. Just take the darn pills. I missed a dose or two and the nerve blocks wore off and I can’t even begin to put into words the amount of pain I was in. We eventually had to call the on-call nurse and she told my husband how to administer the pain pills in a different way (a bit more frequently, but still safe…he asked!) and finally…after a day and a half…I was over that insanity. So take the pills…even if you don’t think you have that much pain. Just do it. This is, by far, the most of all the knee surgery tips.

Elevate and Ice

Once I was done taking pain pills (only needed them for about four days), the best way to help my pain is by elevating it and icing constantly. I was sent home with a machine to ice my knee. You put water in the machine and frozen water bottles and it constantly keeps the pad on your knee cold. If you don’t get sent home with one of those, I highly recommend you buy one. I sleep with it every single night and use it during the day. I also recommend you get one of the elevating wedges. Shortly after the first surgery because trying to get the pillows just right never worked. The wedge was amazing and worth every penny!

Do Your Exercises

My surgeon sent me home with several exercises I needed to start right away. Once I saw my physical therapy team, they gave me more. The two most important exercises for me to do right after surgery were heel pumps and quad sets. The more you can work on getting your quad muscle to fire properly, the better! Another thing I would highly recommend is a strap to help stretch your hamstring and a Tiger Tail rolling stick to help massage your quad muscle. Trust me, those two things are a must have!

Catch Up on Netflix and Reading

Part of my recovery requires me to use a machine that was dropped off at my home. I set the degrees each day and it bends my knee accordingly and repeatedly. Since I use this machine every single day for six hours a day, I have a lot of time to just sit and watch Netflix or read. So far I have watched:

How to Get Away With Murder (remaining season I had left to watch)

You

Santa Clarita Diet (seasons 2 and 3)

The Crown

Criminal Minds (currently watching)

When I’m not watching Netflix, I am reading. You can find my favorite books on my book site, A Real Page Turner.

How Long is Recovery?

It will be 18 long months before I can return to normal activity. Right now I am on crutches and doing rehab. I am hoping that I will get off crutches in a few weeks and start building up my strength with walking and gain the ability to start driving again. Ultimately, I cannot wait to be able to return to the gym. I’ve missed working out. Going from working out 3-4 times a week to not being able to work out at all, stinks big time! BUT, if this fixes my knee and makes it so I don’t have to be afraid to take a step, then it will be worth it to wait a little while longer!

We love banana bread in our house. My kids will let bananas get super ripe just so I have bananas read to make the bread with. My personal favorite is my banana muffin (can be made into a loaf) with peanut butter and chocolate chips. However, this time I wanted to make a chocolate stuffed banana bread. Since using my bundt pan is my new favorite, thing, I decided to make my Banana Bundt Cake Recipe, but stuff it with LOTS of chocolate!

Add your gluten free flour and mix by hand. You want to make sure it is thoroughly incorporated, but you don't want to over mix it.

Pour half of your batter into your greased bundt pan. Next spread out the chocolate chunks. I added the whole bag. I wanted the center to be REALLY chocolatey (and it was). Now add the rest of the batter on top.

Place your bundt pan in the oven and set your timer to 65 minutes. Once those 65 minutes are up, add additional time, as needed. The banana bread pictured above took 75 minutes.

Recipe Notes

If you would like to use regular flour instead of gluten free flour...DO IT! The measurements stay the same!

Chocolate Stuffed Banana Bread…is it Good?

You guys…the chocolate chunks in this chocolate stuffed banana bread was an amazing addition! So good! My kids literally devoured the entire bundt cake in a few days! I think next time I make it, I am going to use the peanut butter and chocolate chips I use in my favorite banana muffin recipe! I think that would be really good too!

While I made this chocolate stuffed banana bread gluten free, you can totally use regular flour in place of the gluten free. The measurements do not change. Some people have asked me about almond flour and coconut flour. I don’t use those flours so I really don’t know if you could substitute those in. Sorry! If someone is familiar with subbing those two flours, let me know!

Other Dessert Breads/Muffins You May Like

Like I said before, my kids like banana breads and muffins. I’ve made many different variations. Some others you just have to try are:

Since switching from Keto to Weight Watchers, one of the things I’ve been excited about is all the different soups. On Keto, the main soup I made (and it’s super good) was chorizo chicken soup. On Weight Watchers, I have a ton of different soups to make. I like soups because you are able to freeze them. With knee surgery coming up in less than two weeks, filling the freezer has been my main goal. This spicy turkey chili recipe is a perfect addition. And, best of all, it’s only one point on Weight Watchers!

Bring your spicy turkey chili to a boil and then lower the heat to low and cover with a lid. Simmer for about 2 hours, or until your onions and green peppers are tender.

Delicious Spicy Turkey Chili

This spicy turkey chili is so good! I made this yesterday and actually had a bowl of it this morning for breakfast! Now remember, if you are following Weight Watchers, you must use the extra lean (99%/1%) ground turkey for it to be so low in points. The only thing in this recipe that adds points is the tomato paste. Be sure to scan all of your ingredients and put it in your recipe builder yourself. Some of the beans I scanned at the store were NOT 0 points. The beans that were not zero points had sugar as one of the ingredients. Be sure to look for that.

Freezer Friendly Recipe!

Like I mentioned above, I am having surgery in less than two weeks. I am making sure to stock my freezer to make things easier. This recipe works perfectly as a freezer recipe! I picked up these freezer friendly containers that are perfect for freezing soups, pulled pork, taco meat, etc. Be sure to pick up some freezer labels and label with the name of the item (duh!) and the date you put it in the freezer.

Other Favorite Weight Watcher Recipes

If you like soups as much as I do, then you need to try the following Weight Watcher friendly recipes:

Enjoy! And remember, scan everything! While I scanned and put the recipe in my own recipe builder app, you will want to do the same with the specific ingredients you used. Brands vary with what they put in their food. Also, feel free to adjust the seasonings to make it more or less spicy!

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